The present invention relates to an automatic medicine packing machine. More particularly, the present invention relates to method and apparatus for backing up power failure for automatic medicine packing machine that prevent erroneous packing of medicine after power failure is recovered.
Generally, an automatic medicine packing machine continuously packs medicine that is dispensed per dose. Construction and operation of an automatic medicine packing machine are explained referring to FIG. 3. The automatic medicine packing machine includes a plurality of tablet cassettes 100 that are received on a shelf in the upper part of the machine, a tablet dispenser 200, a hopper 300 that is provided below the tablet cassettes 100 and the tablet dispenser 200, a printing unit 400, and a sealing unit 500 that moves and seals packing envelopes on which labels are printed by the printing unit 400.
The operation of the printing unit 400 is controlled by a controller C that is provided inside the machine. The controller C controls the printing unit 400 to print label on the outer surface of the packing envelope according to printing information provided by a server S that is provided outside the machine.
The disadvantages of the prior art are that when the power fails during packing operation for medicine, the prescription data stored in the controller is lost and the entire medicine that were prescribed in the data should be prepared again; medicine packed before power failure and after power recovery are mixed and makes precise packing difficult; and such duplicate packing delays the packing and needs extra man power and machine operation time.